Toews challenges judge’s ruling he ‘simply wanted to punish’ prisoner

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews has rebuffed a federal judge’s order that he approve the transfer of a Canadian prisoner from the United States to this country.

Last month, Federal Court Judge Luc Martineau said Toews’ refusal to accept the transfer request of Yves LeBon, who was convicted of drug violations, showed a “closed mind” and lacked reason. He gave the minister 45 days to ensure the inmate’s “prompt” return to this country.

But the minister has filed a notice to the Federal Court of Appeal seeking to stay the judge’s ruling, a move LeBon’s lawyer calls “mind boggling.”

“My client and his family are devastated by the minister’s tunnel vision. His decision is punishing Canadians and their families,” Yavar Hameed said Wednesday.

A four-page appeal notice filed this week by federal lawyers alleges that the judge “exceeded his powers” and “erred in law” by issuing a directed verdict when there were facts in dispute. It also states that authority to grant a transfer request “is vested in the Minister.”

Toews has previously said that LeBon was likely involved in “serious criminal organization activity” and that his offence involved a large quantity of cocaine, “which is destructive to society.” LeBon also did not cooperate with police in identifying his accomplices, the minister has said.

LeBon, 48, who hails from Boisbriand, Que., is being held at a low-security prison in Loretto, Penn.

He was stopped by an Illinois state trooper in August 2007 for a traffic violation and found to have 119 kilograms of cocaine in his vehicle. He pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute and sentenced in July 2008 to 10 years in prison.

LeBon subsequently applied for a transfer under the International Transfer of Offenders Act, which was adopted, in the Canadian government’s own words, to help with the “rehabilitation of offenders” and their eventual “reintegration into the community” and to “alleviate undue hardships borne by offenders and their families.”

The public safety minister’s refusal to accept LeBon’s transfer has already been heard once before by the federal appeal court.

The first time, the appeal court ruled that while the minister was not required to follow the advice of corrections officials, his reasoning was not “justified, transparent and intelligible,” and sent the case back to the minister for re-consideration.

Even though updated assessments from the Correctional Service of Canada, RCMP and Canadian Security Intelligence Service favoured LeBon’s transfer, Toews refused to budge.

That prompted Martineau’s ruling in December, in which he concluded that the minister appeared to “simply wanted to punish” LeBon.

“This illustrates an intransigency which is symptomatic of a closed mind and leads to the conclusion that a reasonable apprehension of bias existed on the part of the minister,” Martineau said.